


What Do You Say

by BananaCracker333 (bananacracker333)



Category: Bastion
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 19:37:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5755690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bananacracker333/pseuds/BananaCracker333
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What can you say to a man who's lived and lost.<br/>What do you say to a man who's seen too much.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Do You Say

What do you say to a man who lost everything. The kid don’t rightly know, talking wasn’t exactly his expertise. But here he was, acting the diplomat. Awkwardly, but doing the job nonetheless. Zulf finally lost his cool, the cold gentlemanly shell cracked, oozing tears and the kind of pain you just can’t see. He was on his knees near the shrine, by all appearances having just finished some sort of prayer before breaking down. The kid had tried to comfort him in his usual, quiet manner, but that just got him a nasty bruise and an even more distraught Zulf. So for the first time in a long while, we heard the kids voice, sounding much like the ringing of golden bells as he sat cross-legged in front of his friend. “You know, you really shouldn’t bottle it up like that. You know, feelings. After a while, they just sour and explode like rotten stinkweed.” He paused for a moment, shivering at some old memory, “Ain’t something you wanna see.”

“Why? Why did you take me? I betrayed you! I had nothing! I was going to just peacefully live out the short remainder of my days where I could stay with the memory of her, and then you dragged me away!”

“To be fair, you didn’t look all too happy standing on that cliff. Staring into oblivion and whatnot.” The kid paused. “You know, I’ve almost lost the feeling of having someone to talk to. Last one was my mama. I don’t really count the Marshalls, though. They just gave orders. Didn’t care much for the thoughts of a kid.”

Zulf paused at that. He’d heard bits and pieces, secondhand of the kid’s story, but never that. “What happened to her?”

“She was awful sick, as far back as I can remember. I went off to work the walls when I turned ten. Came back five years later to a corpse in an empty house. So I left again. I’d finished my second tour, and I was gonna apply for a Marshall’s position the morn that the calamity happened.” The kid frowned, “Simple as that”

Zulf was silent, for once, his words failed him. He couldn’t find a single phrase, Ura or Cael, to say. But sometimes silence is best, a lesson he learned from the kid.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is something like this. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt what you’re going through. I worked out all that anger on the walls. Now I just can’t let someone die like I did.” The kid looked Zulf in the eyes, putting one large bandaged hand on the slight man’s shoulder, “Now you may not be dying for the same reason, but you’re killing yourself inside, searching for says to pass the blame, feel the guilt. It ain’t easy to stop, but I’m gonna ask you to try. Maybe talk to Zia. Or the squirt. Doubt you’d want Rucks, he’d talk your ear off before ya got a word in edgewise.” The kid grinned as Zulf hiccupped out a giggle. “If I ain’t out hunting down some bit, bob, or other, I’ll listen to ya, too. I may not understand. Never really had anything to lose. But I’ll listen.”


End file.
